1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of wireless communication, and more particularly, to activating and deactivating Component Carriers (CCs) in a wireless network environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in wireless communication technologies, such as, for example, Long Term Evolution (LTE)/LTE Advanced (LTE-A), carrier aggregation has been introduced such that two or more CCs are aggregated in order to support wider transmission bandwidths of up to 100 MHz, and for spectrum aggregation. The carrier aggregation technique enables configuration of a user equipment to aggregate a different number of CCs originating from the same enhanced Node B (eNB or eNodeB) and a different number of possibly different bandwidths in uplink and downlink.
For an LTE-A cell, CCs in an LTE-A system may be pre-allocated or could be made available due to spectrum farming. As users migrate from 2nd Generation/3rd Generation (2G/3G) towards LTE-A, spectrum from Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) Radio Access Network/Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (GERAN/UTRAN) cells could be made available to the LTE-A cells at a certain point in time based on the control of an operator.
Spectrum farming can be facilitated due to a mix of user type penetrations, as well as when users in GERAN/UTRAN bands reduce in number. Also, parameters such as changing usage patterns, like a greater number of voice calls during office hours, and more broadcasting of multimedia during non-office hours, also provide opportunities for an operator to farm available spectrum from legacy Radio Access Technologies (RATs) and make the same available to the LTE-A cells for carrier aggregation.
Operators might also farm spectrum that is made available to femto cells, where the femto cells can relinquish brands when not using the same. Operators can also provision time based spectrum allocation to femto cells which when not used could be used as Component Carriers (CCs) in macro cells.
However, when the CCs are made available to an LTE-A cell due to spectrum farming, there is no provision to announce availability of carrier components in a cell. As a result, the mobile stations may be unaware of the newly available CCs.